Google Map of CDFAs LBAM Assault On SF Bay Area Watershed and Wild Birds
Saturday 17 May 2008 | LBAM Spray Bay Area
The above map depicts the SF Bay area water bodies that will be illegally exposed to the toxic pesticide, Checkmate, in defiance of the product label warning which forbids introducing into water. Starting in August, the California Department of Food and Agriculture will begin flying their pesticide planes over human habitations and wildlife habitat. The spray will poison the SF Bay Area’s watershed. This is illegal and must be halted.
Doesn’t Audubon Care?
With the exception of Sequoia Audubon, not one Audubon chapter has come out against the spraying, and this fact was remarked upon by KGO Radio Host, Joanie Greggains, this morning.
A week has now gone by since I sent 43 emails to 43 California Audubon Society Chapters carefully explaining the deaths of hundreds of birds that occurred following the 2007 spraying of Monterey Bay. I am shocked and disturbed that in reply to these 43 emails, I received a single, one-line response from the Mendocino chapter of Audubon which asked why I hadn’t told them about the dead birds last fall. I wrote back to the chapter and explained that I don’t live in Monterey and had only learned about the deaths of wild and endangered birds a couple of months ago. I urged each of the chapters to write back to me, to get involved, to start acting now to stop the spray. Not one group has dignified my letter with a reply. I am so disappointed.
I am a native Bay Area resident and a published wild bird illustrator. I wasn’t sending them junk mail to be deleted or ignored, but sincerely trying to alert the Audubon Society that if they don’t take this seriously, there aren’t going to be any birds left to enjoy. I have spent countless hours of my life exploring wild bird habitat all over the Bay Area. Birders like me are expecting thousands and thousands of deaths amongst our already-vanishing wild bird populations if CDFA/USDA are not halted and reprimanded for violating their spray’s own safety warnings as well as federal acts which protect clean water, clean air and endangered species.
I don’t know how this crisis could be so lacking in interest for Audubon chapters from one end of California to the other that they could not even be bothered to respond to my email.
Monterey peninsula people woke up after the spray to a world devoid of bird song, and looked out to sea to see rafts of hundreds of dead and dying sea birds washing ashore. I believe we are looking at our government’s newest version of DDT and I am dismayed that not a single Audubon chapter chairman I contacted feels this is worth taking note of. Has someone gotten to them? Told them to be silent?
If you financially support or are a member of your local Audubon chapter, please, take this warning seriously. For birders, winter is a time of rejoicing as the migratory shore birds flock in droves to the entire rim of the SF Bay, all the wonderful lagoons and marshes. Imagine these habitats littered with the corpses of endangered Brown Pelicans, with Godwits and Murres, with Avocets and Scaups! Then you will know what the beaches looked like in Monterey and Santa Cruz.
Keeping that picture of horror and biochemical genocide in your mind, how can anyone involved in the Audubon society not be dropping any other plans they had for 2008 to fight the illegal and deadly activities of our State and Federal Government? Audubon has NO reason to exist without the birds.
And, if that isn’t scary enough, remember that the bodies of water are our life source, too. They will be scummed over with yellow foam and swimming in plastic and pesticides. The canaries in the coal mine have already shown us what the LBAM spray, Checkmate, does to life forms. It kills birds. Doctors have stepped forward to explain that it will kill people, too. How can this be lacking in interest?
Please, look at the map and imagine it choked with dying birds. Imagine California without bird song.
Saturday 17 May 2008 | admin | LBAM Spray Bay Area |
i’m sorry they disappointed you so. it’s been real interesing who supports the spray and who doesn’t. i guess disappointing too. it must be mind-boggling to a compassionate person such as yourself to see the indifference towards such a disastrous plan.
I can’t believe how widespread the apathy is. We were just at the Bay to Breakers trying to spread the word, and the most commons responses are “I thought they stopped it already” and “I think it will be safe”. When asked for the evidence of safety, I have yet to hear anybody give an answer…
I can’t believe how widespread the apathy is. We were just at the Bay to Breakers trying to spread the word, and the most commons responses were “I thought they stopped it already” and “I think it will be safe”. We ask for the evidence of safety, but have yet to hear anybody give an answer…
Hi Donna -
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. Apathy is something that confuses me. I think the hallmark of a moral human is that, when they know something wrong is happening, they say it’s wrong. I don’t get the concept of not saying anything at all.
And, then, I start to have these dark fears that money is changing hands, and that this is why groups like Audubon, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the Point Reyes Bird Observatory (which is a huge and respected group here) are simply ignoring this.
I have no idea if this is accurate. But I’m trying so hard to understand why groups that state as their own mission conserving wildlife would then play dumb when wildlife is threatened. That just makes no sense to me, and leads me to start feeling like I am very naive and none of the groups are actually about valuing life at all. Is it all about money?
Thank you for your kind words and support, Donna. I really value your input.
Mim
Kevin -
Thank you so much for spreading the word at Bay to Breakers. That was so good of you to volunteer your time doing that.
Yes, we are up against both lack of public education and a disturbing kind of apathy. I fear that, “it couldn’t happen to me,” is often a motive in a situation like this. People hear that folks got sick from the spray, but somehow believe that it won’t happen to them or anyone they love.
And then, I also think that the spraying is just too scary for some people to think about. They shut down their discernment and critical thought because they can’t handle facing it. I know that I can hardly handle it myself, so I have empathy with this.
A couple of weeks ago, I listened to a woman call into the Joanie Greggains’ show on KGO and she was eagerly explaining that the hundreds of families sickened on the Central Coast probably just had the flu. I had to ask myself why an average person would feel the need to call a radio show and insist that everything would be just fine.
I came to the conclusion that the woman is likely so afraid that everything isn’t fine, she is trying to convince others that it is in order to assuage her own fears. I’ve seen people do this before.
It makes me feel very sad for them. No one wants to believe that a government, our government, would launch an attack on its own people. What a horrific thought!
But, if they force us to come to this conclusion about their activities, we have a choice to passively allow them to do this to us because it’s too upsetting to contemplate…or we can do what you are doing, speaking to people, writing, trying to spread the word that something has gone so wrong with our government agencies that they have concluded they are authorized to poison us.
We want our country to be better than that, and the work we are doing, facing these fears, is in hopes that we can change what we see is so wrong.
Thank you so much, again, Kevin, for talking to people at Bay to Breakers. That was a very good idea. I am sure, even though you got some poor responses, that you got through to some of the people.
Mim
mim,
if naive means hopeful and idealistic, or that people like ag and arnold (and worse) don’t exist, couldn’t possibly be that cold and cruel and uncaring and deceitful ……that nature is important, that nature is everything…..but you are also very strong and realistic as well because you are putting your thoughts into action everyday and educating and fighting.
unfortunately, it was cold and flu season when they sprayed which confused things as well. even though i am immune compromised, when i heard monterey was going to be sprayed adn we were to be next i had to play a little game with myself to feel it was going to be ok because the other option is moving. now i’m prepared to move.
my family was fine with the spray healthwise and that includes an asthmatic daughter and a semi-allergic husband whereas i got sick for months. my daughter knows no one at her high school that got sick. so we are living on different planets. that gives me direct insight into people’s attitudes towards the spray. they did not want to face me leaving.
we need more of people like u, mim. this fight can be depressing and disillusioning at times but we gather strength from somewhere and u pull it off with grace.
at least Baykeeper, a division of Waterkeeper Alliance, seems to be very interested and says they are always working on the pesticide issue. so, there’s that one, and we should thank them, and ask for more help with the lbam spray specifically.
A couple of weeks ago, I listened to a woman call into the Joanie Greggains’ show on KGO and she was eagerly explaining that the hundreds of families sickened on the Central Coast probably just had the flu. I had to ask myself why an average person would feel the need to call a radio show and insist that everything would be just fine.